Transformers: End of Cybertron
by QuilSniv
Summary: Nine million years of war have plagued Cybertron. In the waning days of the war for their homeworld, every play by both sides of the playing field matter more than ever. And in these final days for dominance, the forces of Optimus Prime must put everything on the line to stop the plots of Megatron and his Decepticons, where one small mistake could lead to the end of their race.
1. Prologue: Dead End

Prologue: Dead End

Crystal City lay in ruins.

As a major campaign to take back the city had gone miserably wrong, with the main batallion of Autobot foot soldiers and Elite Guardsmen having been obliterated quickly, leaving a few platoons scattered to the city streets. Meanwhile, the Decepticons, having a head start in terms of manpower, quickly took to those same streets to wipe out what was left of the strike force.

Of the thousand Autobots that had arrived in Crystal City, only a few dozen remained. One such Autobot, with a flaming-red paint job completed with silver and gold highlights, rushed through the debris of the city, hoping to escape the carnage. Though technically a member of the Elite Guard, he was simply a cadet, having graduated from the Academy several Earth weeks ago. Granted, that fact was cleverly well hidden, both by the cadet's own mechanisms and the chaos that was happening around him, covered in scratches and dents from the combat, along with dust from camping out for the equivalent of three Earth days.

Though he had regrouped with several small battlegroups, they all fell one by one, until he was convinced that he was the last one left. Taking cover behind the ruins of a fallen building, his arm slowly transforming into a small blaster that, while its size was nothing bombastic, held enough firepower to down a Vehicon troop in a single shot. He had a small submachine gun strapped to his waist, but he was hoping that when he turned around, the small blaster would only have to be fired five times, and the emergency energon he had brought with him could be spared. But as he turned around, he looked in horror to see three dozen Vehicons pointing large cannons at his body.

In the three seconds it took him to to raise his hands in surrender, hoping that the drones would allow him to live in extract intelligence, everything went downhill for both sides.

A well-placed explosive blast incinerated the leadVehicon's helm, downing it and heavily injuring another. The cadet took advantage of the distraction and blasted a third Vehicon, downing it and taking cover as a silver-laced Cybertronian jet raced overhead, firing smart missiles at two dozen more, incinerating them into molten metal. Two more Cybertronians leaped from a large ATV, which separated into four smaller Cybertronians, each acting on their own accord. One of the two descending Autobots broke his fall by firing a glowing cable at a Vehicon, piercing his visor and retracting it to rip out his neural net. The other broke his own fall by releasing a pair of sonic blasts, spreading out in a shockwave to Finally, a large truck-like vehicle sped into the mix of bodies, smashing into two more Vehicons, finally wrapping up the skirmish. Transforming, the Autobot commander walked up to a Vehicon, who was struggling to escape.

"I am willing to give you a chance to leave with your life," the red and blue titan bellowed deeply, the authoritative tone he spoke in giving the young rookie a tingle in his servos. "I am only asking that you cooperate fully with assisting us."

"Burn in Unicron's blood, Prime!" The Vehicon spat, his visor preventing fluid from reaching the Autobot's face. Nonchalantly, the Prime relented, dropping the Vechicon and allowing him to run. Seconds later, a grenade landed and exploded, taking the Vehicon down in a ball of fire.

"Excellent work, Wheeljack," the Prime commended his fellow soldier, who leaped down, two glowing blue fins showing his trigger-happy chuckle. "Now, Blaster, communicate Iacon HQ. Tell them that we have retaken Crystal City... though at great cost."

Somberly, the red and yellow Autobot nodded, transforming into a boombox and sending an encrypted signal. The Cybertronian jet landed, transforming into a short but ammo-packed Autobot. "Optimus, I swept over the entire city with the Aerialbots. The 'Cons are falling back, and we've picked up several survivor groups. We're transporting them back to Iacon now."

"Very good, Silverbolt. Jazz, we must attend to our new arrival." Slowly, the Prime lumbered over and offered a large, yet comforting hand, and the young cadet slowly accepted it, regaining his footing.

"Are you unharmed, soldier?"

"Um... yes, sir... for the most part." The hot rod Autobot slowly brushed off the dust somewhat intentionally used as camoflauge, and saluted. "Reporting for duty, sir."

"Formalities are not required at this time, my friend. My name is Oprimus Prime, leader of the Autobot forces. What is your name, soldier?"

The yound Autobot gulped, before regaining his composure. "S-Smokescreen, Optimus. I... just got..."

"There is no need to explain yourself, Smokescreen." Optimus replied coolly, with a compassionate smile on his face. "I must request you come back with us to Iacon, and I am sure you would be more than welcome within our forces. Autobots, roll out!" With that, all of the other Autobots transformed and sped away.

Smokescreen watched the others drive off, then shrugged before transforming himself. "Yes, sir."

* * *

 **A/N: Hello, I'm QuilSniv, the Avenging Renegade. So, I'm jumping over to the Transformers fandom after a long, three-year career in the Tron fandom. This is a story that I've been working on for a few months, but never had the time nor the courage to attempt, since I mostly stick to smaller fandoms. But here we are, Transformers: End of Cybertron. It mostly consists of characters that mostly come inspired from Transformers Prime and the movies (maybe not so much that last one). What we have here is sort of a demo reel of the story, to reel people in and see what people think. That said, constructive criticism is insanely appreciated.**

 **It's mainly going to focus on the War for Cybertron (inspired somewhat by the events of the game), and maybe they'll end up on Earth, but it'll be in the last third of the story.**

 **But let's get one thing straight here: there aren't going to be any pairings here, at least not any that take up the spotlight, and absolutely no technorganics. It makes the humans feel way too forced to me, which was a big demotivating factor for me to see the movies. The story should be about the Transformers, not the humans. So they'll come much later, if barely at all.**

 **I'll be posting the character list later on, once the story is published and I have a good roll going. Until then, peace guys!**


	2. Chapter 1: Game of Illusions, Pt 1

Chapter 1: Game of Illusions, Pt. 1

The first thing that came to mind when Smokescreen first came to Iacon was 'Primus, the city's massive.'

It was obvious that the Autobot forces had dedicated everything to their defense of Iacon, as it seemed that almost every single square foot was filled with Autobot. The walls were lined to the brim with automated turrets, with additional snipers lining the top of the walls. It seemed more like a fortress than a city, and Smokescreen was sure that the Autobots wouldn't deny that fact.

"So... why are all the Autobot forces in one place?" Smokescreen inquired, following Optimus and his team through the hordes of colorful Autobots. "It just seems... like a bad idea, Optimus. Dedicating all of our forces to one area just leaves more soldiers exposed to the 'Cons."

"I do not disagree, Smokscreen," Optimus replied, guiding his small group into a large war room, free from any other Autobots. "But we have had little success leading key offenses with large armies against the Decepticons. Therefore, I have taken the measure of drawing back all of our forces to dedicated defense of Iacon and what remains of Praxus. We are engaged with special campaigns in Crystal City and Polyhex, but have come to a draw in all of our offensives." With a heavy sigh, as Optimus placed his Energon axe against a wall, he gestured to the others with him.

"Allow me to introduce you to my team, Smokescreen." Optimus drew Smokescreen's attention to the white Autobot, fiddling with a grappling hook connected to his wrist. "My first officer, Jazz." The blue visor on Jazz's face gleamed as he waved, turning his multitasking hands to a pair of sonic cannons.

"What's crackin, Smokes?" Sheepishly, Smokescreen waved back, turning to the flier of Optimus' squad, who was reloading a large rotary missile system on his shoulder.

"Normally, I would leave the position of first lieutenant to Ultra Magnus." Optimus explained. "However, due to the need for a strategic command, I have given him command of the forces in Praxus with Prowl as his first officer. Silverbolt, our Seeker, has been delivering communiques between our bases with Megatron's destruction of the communication relays between Iacon and Praxus."

"Greetings, Smokescreen," the flier replied, cocking the missile launcher into a compartment and into his body. "Commanding officer of the Autobot Air Command. Head and torso of the gestalt Superion."

"One of our combiners?" Smokescreen inquired, recalling one of the first campaigns in the war, when Megatron blitzed Crystal City. He had been taught about the campaign during his time at the Academy, remembering vividly of how the combiner Superion had swept through the Decepticon ranks. "But... where are your other guys? Wouldn't it be handy to have Superion or Defensor on hand to make sure Iacon is at full strength? It wouldn't be as strong as Omega Supreme, sure, but it would be comforting to the soldiers outside to have a combiner over our heads.

"As much as I agree," Silverbolt retorted, cutting off the Elite Guardsman, "The Aerialbots have been doing supply escorts for our trips between Iacon and Praxus. And Superion's sixth member is infiltrating the Decepticons."

"Starscream has been blending in with the Decepticon ranks for some time," Jazz cut in. "I assigned him to the mission. He's the closest thing to a Seeker we've got, and he used to be close to Megatron's personal bodyguards, Thundercracker and Skywarp. Nobody else knows he's an Autobot, and we intend to keep it that way while he's in Kaon."

"Starscream?" Smokescreen repeated, thinking hard of where he'd heard the name. "Oh! That one seeker from Crystal City? I remember him! He taught a semester of Covert Warfare at the Academy. I never did know what to think of him."

"Speaking of..." Silverbolt started. "I never did get Starscream's intelligence report last checkpoint. Blaster, have you and Rewind received his encoded messages?" As Silverbolt walked off to talk to the team's communications offcer, Smokescreen turned his attention to the femme in the room, who towered over him by several feet.

"You're... Arcee, right?" Smokescreen asked politely, not wanting to make her think he was flirting. "I... thought you went MIA a while back. How'd you get back?" All that he got was her glaring at him menacingly, optics narrowing in distrust.

"Not something I like to talk about." Smokescreen watched in dismay as she struted away, Optimus putting a warm, reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"It would be wise to heed Arcee's words," Optimus advised, drawing Smokescreen's attention away from her, towards their private armory. "But, it would be beneficial to us that you know Arcee's reasons for being so distant. Arcee was a prisoner of war, along with four Mini-Cons. Arcee's group ended up under the care... of Shockwave."

Smokescreen had also heard of Shockwave during his time at the Elite Guard academy. Though Megatron's most trusted scientist, he was also one of his most brutal warriors. During an attempted takeover of Polyhex, Shockwave alone had slaughtered an entire batallion of Autobot soldiers, with only Ultra Magnus' intervention winning the day, and merely forcing the cyclops to fall back. But his accomplishments on the battlefield paled in comparison to his work in the scientific field. Every solar cycle, he would find a new discovery to use against his opponents. When an Autobot heard Shockwave's name in the same sentence as an MIA Autobot, one could only assume they did not meet their end well.

"Shockwave's experiments gave Arcee a unique ability, to split her body into four separate Mini-Cons. However, this experiment took away her ability to feel emotions. The split personalities proved too much for her neural net to compress, and Shockwave ruthlessly removed her emotional subroutines. I chose to personally lead the team that rescued her."

A heavy sigh escaped Optimus' mouth as he looked over at her, punching a metal training bag with brutal strength. "I cannot help but feel I could have helped."

Not knowing how to respond, Smokescreen remained silent, watching the white Autobot with blinking blue fins tinkering with a series of grenades. "Who's that?"

"Wheeljack," the white Autobot replied, extending a hand for Smokescreen to shake. "I'm Optimus' liaison for the Wreckers. We're essentially a suicide squad taking down everything in a fifteen -klick radius with us. A few of us survive, we fill in the blank slates, and we repeat the whole cycle."

"Personally, I never understood that process," Blaster, transformed into a radio, interjected. "I always wondered what would happen if all the Wreckers died on a mission? Wouldn't their ideologies be completely obliterated?"

"Ah, shut it, Blaster," Wheeljack growled, knocking Blaster's alternate mode onto the ground. "We don't think like-" As Wheeljack finished his sentence, the last few words were drowned out by blaring klaxons, red warnings lights flaring as Autobot troops scattered to battle positions.

"All Autobots, stand down," Optimus commanded over the PA system. "We have simply been hacked. We have received a message from Decepticon headquarters." Optimus turned to the main screen, activating it. "Blaster, relay the message to the main viewer."

"Sorry, Optimus, it's in written form," Blaster said, deciphering the text. "Oh, Primus. This isn't good."

"What? What does it say?" Smokescreen eagerly asked. Blaster cast him a solemn look.

"Starscream's been had and captured. They want us to surrender Praxus in exchange for his release. Along with a thousand Autobot soldiers we assumed were MIA."

 **A/N: So, this story is setting up everything, and is basically the exposition chapter for things that will come up later (Superion, Shockwave, Arcee's mini-con team, and Blaster's relationship with Soundwave, among other things). I've been incredibly busy reviewing movies on my YouTube channel, so that's been detracting from my free time. Other than that, I have no real excuse.**

 **Also, for this fanfic only, we'll be doing review replies! Fun times!**

PandaBearLover317: _Thanks! And in case you're still curious, Smokescreen is kind of our eyes and ears in a third person perspective, but will also have some moments focusing on Optimus and the rest of his team. Thanks for your review again!_


	3. Chapter 2: Game of Illusions, Pt 2

Chapter 2: Game of Illusions, Pt. 2

"This revelation is very disturbing," Optimus muttered underneath his breath, his entire team watching on as he paced back and forth, before realizing every Autobot in Iacon was staring him down from outside. Closing the door, the team seated themselves at the war room table. "The capture, rather than offlining, of Starscream and a thousand other Autobots is news we should rejoice over; it shows that, with some compassion, Megatron can be convinced to end the war."

"Uh, no offense, Optimus," Wheeljack snarked, his metal elbows clanging against the table. "But I don't think Megatron kept them alive out of the goodness of his spark. We have to remember that he wants Praxus in exchange. And we have over twenty thousand units in the city, not to mention the ones holding the line outside Praxus' walls."

"Agreed," Silverbolt agreed, his skeletal fingers clicking against the table. "Praxus' surrender is not worth it. That gives Buckethead a good twenty thousand prisoners. Normally, I would say a black ops mission is what we should go with, but in these circumstances, we don't have a choice. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, Optimus."

"That is what Sentinel Prime would have said," Optimus said, activating the holographic projector in the table. "But I am not my predecessor. I was taught by Alpha Trion to save every life I could, and save them we shall." Optimus grabbed his sword from the wall, sheathing it on his back; when every 'Bot in the room looked into his eyes, they saw nothing but a raging fire, burning with resolve to live up to his word.

"Autobots." Each Autobot in the room stood up at attention, waiting for Optimus' next order, which followed the united sign of respect. "Roll out."

Smokescreen tightly gripped the handles of his dual submachine blasters, swearing that he had caused more damage to them than to any Decepticon in the past three Earth days. Though the armory sargeant, Warpath, had been more than kind enough to give them a thorough overhaul and laser sights, he still felt a little shaky. This was, after all, his first mission on Optimus Prime's unit, and he was determined not to let anybody down.

"Yo, Smokes," Jazz barked, snapping Smokescreen out of his trance and getting his grip firmed. "You ready? I had Wheeljack place the bombs. We'll be rolling when the big O gives the signal." Smokescreen nodded, eyeing Optimus line up against the wall of Kolkular, raising a hand to signal to Wheeljack, who primed the detonator.

A few seconds later, the entire fortress was covered in fire, and Team Prime dashed out, Smokescreen feeling the kickback from his weapons vibrating, energon stabbing into the bodies of multiple Vehicons.

Not too far off, Smokescreen could see Optimus rampaging across the battlefield, using a glowing orange blade to slash through the Decepticon ranks, Arcee, Blaster and Silverbolt covering his flanks. Smokescreen, Jazz and Wheeljack smashed what was left of the Decepticons in that area and made their way over towards their leader, having finally made a beachhead into Kolkular's perimeter.

"Aerialbots!" Silverbolt shouted into his commlink. "Commence bombing run! Air Raid, give us an opening into Megatron's fortress!"

"Copy, boss." A loud streak could be heard as four Cybertronian jets raced overhead, a flurry of missiles incinerating the last of the Vehicons guarding the enterance to the Kaon complex. "We can keep their outer defenses occupied, but you're on your own inside.

"Understood, Air Raid." Optimus confirmed, pointing to the inside of the fortress. "Autobots, secure the prison. Free Starscream and the other prisoners. I will see to it that Megatron does not interfere with our rescue. Smokescreen, Arcee, Silverbolt, to me!" The three Autobots raced after Optimus, dashing into the dimly-lit hallways of the facility.

The blue glows of the Autobot's blaster broke the darkness of the dim lavender lining the hallways as Optimus and his strike force blasted through into the main control room of Kolkular. Smokescreen grimaced as the smoke flew up in the air, firing randomly and hearing Vehicons shriek in pain. The cloud of smoke disappated, and Smokescreen found his blasters leveled at the leader of the Decepticons himself.

Megatron was a menace to behold. He was taller than Smokescreen by a good amount, and even gave the massive Optimus a run for his money. A dull yet somehow lusterous silver coated his entire body, save for the purple that adorned small amounts of his body, including two faint lines underneath his right eye and his fingers, which ended in a sharp, claw-like shape at the tips. On his right arm lay a massive fusion cannon, that could most likely incinerate any of the Autobots standing in the room. A row of sharp teeth lined his narrow mouth, which currently formed an egotistical smirk. A bucket-like fixture adorned the Decepticon's head, which lead down to the final, disturbing feature: a pair of glowing, blood-red eyes, small, lightly-colored pupils barely visible in the sea of blood that was Megatron's eyes.

"I would recommend not firing your weapons," Megatron said, glaring at Smokescreen, who did not back down. "It would be a shame to waste precious Energon on a weapon which will not affect me." Knowing that Megatron was probably right, Smokescreen remained defiant, leveling his blasters at Megatron's face. The only response he received was a hearty bellow. "Well, you certainly have more of a spark than your comrades. Tell me, Optimus, have you begun instilling this type of defiance in all of your soldiers, or was this one born with it?"

"That, Megatron, is none of your concern," Optimus growled, raising a massive nucleon blaster at Megatron. Arcee whipped out a quantum sniper rifle, while Silverbolt raised a pair of railguns on his arms. "You are surrounded. I would rather this conflict end peacefully. Please, Megatron. I am appealing to the part of you that stood on the behalf of those created into a life of despair. I believe that there is still a part of you in there."

"Then you delude yourself, Prime." Megatron hissed, raising his fusion cannon to Prime's face as well. "Decepticons, transform and roll over!"

On Megatron's mark, a communications system slowly transformed into a skeletal, hunched-over purple mass, a pristine black visor guarding his face. On his chest lay a small symbiont, the spy drone Laserbeak had attached itself, a single sound imaging wave lingering over the opaque face mask.

"Autobots inferior, Soundwave superior."

A loud footstep shook the floor. Another purple Cybertronian stepped into view from the shadows. If not for the massive strature and fusion cannon, Smokescreen would have assumed that the massive Cybertronian and Soundwave shared a split spark. A massive wire traveled from his spine to a massive plasma launcher, and a single, red, unblinking eye completed the picture of Shockwave. But it was the monotone voice, unemotional and unintrigued, that frightened Smokescreen. "Your choice to attack our capital was most... illogical. Perhaps if I dissect you like I did Arcee, I will have a chance to determine why your amounts at intelligence always flounder."

At this, Silverbolt and Arcee both aimed their weapons at him, only to be interruped by Jazz. "Prime! We've got a problem down here! We've made off with most of the prisoners, but Starscream isn't here with them! He may have gotten lost durin' the chaos!"

Silverbolt looked up in worry, only to find a ballistic projectile pressed up against his helm, and a Null Ray pressed up against Arcee's. Silverbolt, a look of betrayal etched on his face, finally spoke softly and broken at what he saw.

"Found him."

A/N: Sorry for the long delay. I had a hard time deciding where to go with this one, but I was very pleased with the end result. I aimed to make the depictions of the Decepticons reminiscent of Prime's interpretations, since they appeared the most menacing there, rather than G1. And yeah, we all knew that Starscream was going to join with the 'Cons, but I figured, why not play around with it a bit more? Have Screamer be a disillusioned Autobot who say more opportunity within Megatron's ranks seemed like a genuinely good idea to me, as did Optimus having his own, elite team be the branches of his command.

All in all, I hope you guys like this chapter, and I'll see you within the month (I hope, YouTube reviews are hard to produce).


	4. Chapter 3: Game of Illusions, Pt 3

Chapter 3: Game of Illusions, Pt. 3

Smokescreen looked over to Silverbolt, studying his reaction to Starscream pointing a missile at his head. He only recognized a few things, the most noticable thing being a look of hurt and a need to give up, to just let Starscream pound the explosive into his helm. A second thing he noticed was a lust for destruction, his denta grinding as he glared at the Seeker. And as Thundercracker and Skywarp, his fellow Seekers, surrounded them, Starscream smirked, knowing that without him, the Autobots lost a pivotal means of defense against the Decepticon war machine.

"And you must be Starscream," Smokescreen said, breaking the tense silence in the chamber. "You know, I'd thought you'd be taller." As two more missiles aimed themselves at him, leveled by Thundercracker and Skywarp, he silenced himself.

"Why'd you do it, 'Screamer?" Silverbolt muttered, his jaw finally slacking enough to let his speak. Still holding his arm towards his former commander's head, Starscream slowly stalked around, to face the Aerialbot.

"I was born a neutral," Starscream slyly spoke, a fair amount of his silver tongue turning black from the poisonous way he spoke. "Crystal City was full of seekers, who were also neutral. We had all been taught to follow each other to the death. And when Megatron glassed Vos, we realized that in a war, you pick the winning team."

"So why'd you pick the Autobots?" Smokescreen grimaced, Starscream's slick voice fueling his chagrin. "If you're supposed to be the bandwagon mentality, why'd you choose the side against your friends, your family?"

"I simply saw more opportunity in the ranks of the Autobots," the white seeker replied, pointing a sharp finger in Smokescreen's general direction. "But I saw myself become merely a science experiment, merely a cog in a losing side. And, at that point, I realized that my bretheren were right in this war."

"I hope this does not disappoint, Optimus," Megatron coyly grinned, malevolence seeping from his eyes. "Merely consider this... an exchange of prisoners. Your prisoner... for mine." Smokecreen looked over at his leader, who was almost on the verge of leaking coolant. He could almost see the fire raging in Optimus' eyes.

"No, Megatron. It does not disappoint... It hurts more than you could ever measure." In an instant, the Pit broke loose. What Smokescreen did himself, he could not remember. But what Prime did in the next half-second was astounding. In that half-second, he managed to blast Soundwave's face with his nucleon blaster, prompting the Spymaster to recoil and protect his exposed face. In that same split-second, he managed to grab his Energon Axe and hurl it at Megatron, the weapon snagging itself in the Decepticon's shoulder. Smokescreen managed to grab his SMG, firing three rounds into Thundercracker, with Arcee holstering her rifle.

Instead of helping Silverbolt with the rocket pointed at his head, she went for Shockwave, unsheathing two incredibly sharp combat knives. Using dexterity that neither Smokescreen nor Shockwave knew she had, she leapt in a beeline, bringing her first knife into Shockwave's arm, short-circuiting his massive arm-cannon; the second jammed itself in his single eye, blinding the Decepticon scientist.

"You took my emotions," Arcee growled, kicking Shockwave down to stop watching his stumbling. "Now, I take something of yours." While she was staring at him in victory, a sniper blast piecered her left shoulder, turning to see Soundwave, shattered visor and all, with a smoking blaster.

"Arcee inferior, Soundwave superior." In an act of violent burst, Smokescreen piledrove Soundwave, knocking a valuable piece of equipment out of the Spymaster's body: his voice box.

"Soundwave inferior, Smokescreen superior."

Optimus, knocking Megatron back, dug his Energon Axe out of his nemesi's shoulder. "Autobots, fall back! We have what we came for!" With that, Silverbolt wrenched free of Starscream's grip, all four Autobots leaping out of the glass window.

Megatron grimaced, leaning up as Starscream assisted him. "Do not touch me! Why are you not pursuing Prime and the Autobots?!"

"I apologize, Lord Megatron!" Starscream said, his voice quivering. "I live to serve you and the Decepticon armada! Long live-"

"SHUT UP!" Megatron roared, grabbing Starscream and throwing him out the window. "You heard me! Follow them and eradicate them!" Hearing Starscream's cry of terror, he grinned malevolently as he watched his newest lieutenant chase after his opponents.

Optimus looked at the holographic war panel in remorse. So did the rest of his team.

They had lost over twenty of the thousand Autbots they had sworn to bring home. Even if those casualties were minimal in terms of tactical strength, they were still twenty lives that Optimus regretted losing with all of his spark.

All of his team was gathered around, a solemn silence passing through the War Room. Finally, Jazz spoke up.

"So... what happens now? We lost 'Screamer, but gained 'most a thousand back. We should be celebratin' what's happened, but... Ah feel nothin' but empty."

"I've sent word to Praxus. I asked for them to send Chromedome over here." Blaster said, patting his cassette case in his chest. "I feel like it would be good for him and Rewind to spend more time together. We could all use some time with our loved ones."

"What happens to Smokescreen, Prime?" Silverbolt asked, pointing to the rookie Autobot, who looked up at Prime as though he were some messiah. Optimus looked back, knowing that he was about to commit a very selfish act. Some would view it as a smart tactical move, but Optimus himself deemed it merely unwilling to be responsible for Smokescreen's destruction on another deployment.

"Smokescreen will remain under my direct command indefinitely." Optimus said, his tone deeming the topic closed, before immediately reverting to his loose and solemn tone. "I... need to think for a time. Until then, take some time off. That is an order." As the members of Optimus' team departed, Smokescreen looked back at his new commander, unflinching in his resolve.

"Optimus." Smokescreen stood uncannily still, waiting until he was sure he had Optimus' full attention. "'Till all are one." With that, he left, with Optimus looking back out over the city he swore he'd protect.

"'Till all are one... I fear that day will never come."

A/N: So, after a long absence, I am back. And I have been binge-reading the excellent IDW comics, and I wanted to include elements from that as well. Hence, I introduced Chromedome as Rewind's 'lover', per se. I won't make their relationship pivotal to the story, it'll just be... there. But, I wanted to make Starscream the opportunistic, manipulative douche we all know and hate, who tries to suck up to Megatron and always ends up getting his rear handed to him. I also introduced Soundwave as a mute, and Shockwave and the seeker trio. I don't wanna introduce Soundwave's cassettes yet, because of a twist I have that I'm going to implement later on.

'Till All Are One.


End file.
